Described as Odisha’s last top Maoist leader, Kosa Sodi alias Sukru, on Tuesday surrendered along with four others before police in Kandhamal, sources said.
The 49-year-old, who is also known as Krishna and Raju, was born in the Koya tribal community and is from Kalimela in Odisha’s Malkangiri district. He was a member of the banned CPI (Maoist) party’s state committee, and carried a bounty of Rs 55 lakh. He surrendered with an AK-47.
His surrender comes as the Maoist movement faces a series of setbacks in the country, including the killing and surrender of several top leaders and hundreds of cadres.
In Odisha, police sources said Sukru had been trying to prevent cadres from surrendering, and that he recently killed Anwesh alias Renu, a 31-year-old operative, who was a divisional committee member and military platoon commander of the Kalahandi-Kandhamal-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN) division. Anwesh had purportedly been planning to surrender along with 12 others.
According to sources, intense anti-Maoist operations by security forces in Kandhamal district and fear for his own life forced Sukru to finally take the decision to surrender himself.
Security forces had deployed drones to trace the hideouts of Sukru and others as part of efforts to meet the March 31st deadline set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to make the country Maoist-free.
Kandhamal SP Harisha B C told The Indian Express that Sukru surrendered voluntarily.
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Inducted into the CPI (Maoist) in 1997 in Malkangiri — once the hotbed of Maoism in Odisha — Sukru was most recently in charge of the Maoists’ 8th company in the KKBN area.
Sukru had earlier lost his wife, Aruna alias Rukmini alias Phulmati, who was from Chhattisgarh, in an exchange of fire with security forces. According to the Odisha Police, Sukru was present during the exchange of fire at Sirla in 2020, along with Modem Balkrishna, a Central Committee member. Though five cadres were killed, Sukru and Balkrishna managed to escape.
“Since then, Sukru shifted his base from BGN (Bansadhara-Ghumusar-Nagabali) division and mostly remained in the KKBN area. Later, he moved to the Boudh-Kandhamal axis with a special task to open the corridor for Jharkhand,” said a senior police officer.
For the last few years, Sukru has been operating in the Daringbadi-Raikia-Chakapada axis of Kandhamal district. He was commanding a group of around 15 Maoists, mostly from Chhattisgarh, in Kandhamal district, Odisha’s last Maoist bastion.
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On Monday, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed the state Assembly in a written reply that there were only 15 active Maoist cadres in the state, and that Kandhamal was its only Maoist-affected district.
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